After the food in the platter was cleaned up by Sophia, she had to move again. She left the classmates's group and walked towards food.
Please, don't notice me. Please, don't notice me.
Her prayers were answered. No one noticed her and called her. On that sweet news, let's have something sweet.
Mmm. This pastry is yummy. The cake is so divine. It felt bad to eat that pretty thing but taste removed all the guilt. Maybe, they could do something similar to this on special occasions in the coffee shop. To pull people on slow days. Or maybe they could expand and enter catering. Nah, catering needs hands-on management. She didn't have time or patience for that. She would not get bosses like Brian who preferred to be worry free and not be boss anymore. But...special occasions within the shops seemed a doable idea.
Why Sophia was able to stand there and think for long time? It was dessert section. Calorie ladden. The ladies had more self restraint to stop themselves from stuffing these sweet nothings, to ensure they could fit into their dresses. The men....they had champagne, wine or even stronger spirits. Why would they come near food section, much less the dessert part. The organisers knew it too. The food section was a bit secluded and dessert part even more so.
But some one did come. Solimo. He had ditched his tie and piling sweets and other items into plate as if he was going to build a warship from those pieces. He even found a pretty good spot to sit and munch. D*mn it! Why didn't she notice such a spot before?
As a budding businesswoman, she had to be thick skinned. So after boosting herself mentally, she also walked towards him and sat next to Solimo.
This tall buff clean shaven guy in a old but well fitted suit just eyed her as if she was here to steal his food. Dude! It's not even your food. There was a lot still piled up there, why would she be interested in the food.
Solimo had been in rollercoaster ride called life. He knew he didn't have pulling power. That left food. Granted if she took food from his plate, he would just have to walk to buffet to refill. But he was not ready for any human contact. And there was no guarantee that this spot would be still empty later on.
After few moments of awkward silence, Sophia started talked. Pshh! No thick skin yet.
"So...Solimo, right? Tell me your sob story?"
"Why would I have a sob story?" Solimo asked gruffly.
"All musicians will have one. That's what makes them emotional, I heard. I am not lying. Look at that boy over there, grinning from ear to ear? Yeah, he is the youngest performer in today's concert. He is the most pampered child in the family. Ask him a sob story, he'll belt out five or six without thinking. So, what's your background sob story? Parents died. Became poor suddenly. Girlfriend left. Best friend betrayed you..." Sophia stopped giving examples after she noticed Solimo glaring at her.
"Why should every musician have such sob story? You also performed, right? Do you have one?" Best defence is offence.
"Well... Don't tell anyone. It's not well known. Not even my younger siblings know but I am not born into my family. Apparently there was a swap of babies when I was born."
"You are making it up."
"Am I? There is only one way to confirm. Check DNA. Care to do that?"
Solimo looked at the teenager who was lying through her teeth but being so obvious about it. Should he lie too? Why? He was not a teenager with some weird ideas.
"Care to create a sob story where one effingly turned idiot and gave up becoming prodigy and just... remained ordinary?"
"I like your optimism, man. You want a fail proof backstory when you become famous. And you have amazing premises. Let's start with the reason why stopped being a prodigy. Becoming horny or interested in trying other things including drugs...Not good in a story. You want audience to feel for you, root for you. So scrap that reality off from your past. Instead paint a beautiful dream, a melody. You were so interested in music because of your muse. But one day your muse left, without a goodbye and you could not longer think of music."
"That's hogwash and it can be disproved in a minute. There was no girl in my past who died."
"She can leave."
"Those who left, none were worthy of my attention. Forget about them being muse."
"It can be a boy."
"What? No, heck no. I don't swing that way."
"Muse and love are different, man. Are you telling me you were thinking of a girlfriend when were six , seven years old? That's disgusting."
" What? No! No! I barely had friends at that time. Why would I even think about girlfriends and as such?"
"That's good. You are a lonely boy. Now you can spin even better beautiful story of how you heard someone playing piano when you were young and you loved it very much. That man, woman...person was so into music and enjoying himself or herself that you too wanted that joy, so you started playing. "
"Good start. I did attend few musicals and concerts when I was young. But how do you finish the story?" Solimo now had no idea why he was indulging in pointless conversation but it felt good. A way of release. He did not even dream that some day in the future, he would use these words himself to give himself a impressive, sob worthy backstory.
Sophia didn't care what he was thinking. Compared to before, when he was even shrinking from exchanging a hello, to the present was good progress. Just a bit more and the fish would be in the net.
"So you continue learning music. But one day, you become disillusioned. You just saw your muse. Still playing songs but there was no joy, just musical notes. Disheartened you give up. On yourself, on music and shut everything out. The music you believed was flawed. You can no longer even play it. And the time passed while you refused to acknowledge the music. People will eat up this sob story.
Here comes the rooting part. Few days back, in a fudgy state, you walked around and came to a place you normally don't visit. Some orphanage or old age home. There, you heard the music again. Old people, kids, all nodding along, flowing with the music and you found that all along you pursued was not the smile of the performer but the smile of the audience. Since then, you buckled up and faced discrimination and harsh words to brings all sorts of emotions to people through music. Oh, I do hope you use the charity 'Hope by Music' in your sob story. They are working on a worthy cause."
"I get it. You work for the charity. You want to spread its name. That's why you came up with this stupid sounding story."
"You mean I look old enough to work?" Sophia asked. Girls love to look younger and here was a man who just told off a teenager that she looked old, old enough to be working as a staff. Maybe he meant as part timer? But would a part timer would zealously advocate using the charity as backdrop in a story that probably won't be told?
Whatever! She was pissed off. End of discussion. She was becoming more and more trigger happy recently. It was as if she was releasing all her emotions out, so she could be serene at home. Ah, forget this game. She was not good at it anyway. Take the bull by the horns and end it.
"You know what I actually wanted was you to be my company's artist. I even thought of getting you a job if you needed one."
"Oh, pardon me for not recognising that I was talking to director of some famous studio or a real close relative of Lexia Windsor." Well, someone got their points triggered.
Sophia laughed sarcastically. This man was getting under her skin very fast. The Madame Lexia Windsor part was totally out of the line. Who didn't know that she didn't have such young relatives? "You think big, dear sir, if you think your talent can pull such people to you. Madame Lexia won't even notice you."
"Oh, and she'll notice you, sister? You really think so? Is that why you are so uppity?"
"News flash Sherlock, none of us are noticed by her."
Author's note :
Was it a surprise? Sophia and Solimo, both not being noticed by Madame Lexia Windsor?
Do let me know.
Because, if many of you like Sophia to become a famous musician, I can see what I can do to fulfill that wish.
But personally, I think Sophia is slowly evolving from a girl with pure emotions to be more money grubbing.